


Reset

by caligulasaquarium5



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, References to other character deaths, Reset au, basically everyone gets brought back to life, but its more of a friendship than anything, descriptions of being crushed, implied Oumota
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 00:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19779967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caligulasaquarium5/pseuds/caligulasaquarium5
Summary: Death was something that no one could escape. It was inevitable, unyielding. Like the slab of metal slowly approaching him from above. It would never stop, it hit everyone at some point. The thought of his soon to be ending almost made him want to laugh.The great Kokichi Ouma, Ultimate Supreme Leader, was finally dying.





	1. Chapter 1

Death was something that no one could escape. It was inevitable, unyielding. Like the slab of metal slowly approaching him from above. It would never stop, it hit everyone at some point. The thought of his soon to be ending almost made him want to laugh. The great Kokichi Ouma, Ultimate Supreme Leader, was finally dying.

It felt like years had passed before the cool steel hit his toes. The pain was muffled, but still there, pounding on the walls of his dwindling consciousness. Perhaps it was the poison, perhaps it was the strange relief of telling the truth, perhaps it was just his mind finally cracking under the knowledge that he was about to die. But he was...calm. Empty.

He felt pressure on his nose, spreading over his face, burning white hot pressure. And yet, at the same time, he felt nothing. He felt as if he were already dead, just a corpse slowly being crushed.

...And he was...ok with that. He'd accepted the fact that he was going to die here. The feeling of cold, burning metal all over his body now felt like a soft embrace, warm liquid pulling him down into the abyss, until all he could see was red. Was that his blood? He felt as if he were watching from afar, hand over the button on the video camera, trying to stay strong as the person underneath the press gave one final scream of pain and just praying it would be muffled on the video.

Perhaps that was how Kaito felt. Or perhaps not. As he sank down, down, down, he couldn't help but reach out toward the fading light, impulsively, toward the life he'd willingly left behind.

The ceiling closed up and the darkness never hesitated to swallow him whole.

…

…

…

…

…

...The light. Was blinding.

It burned so much. His entire body felt as if it were the sun, radiating with heat and scorching itself to a crisp. He would have screamed if his voice would allow it, but nothing more than a faint wheeze left his dry lips. Then, a sudden thought, blaring in his head, drowning out anything else.

**_BREATHE_ **

Kokichi’s eyes shot open as air filled his lungs, fingers scraping against the concrete in a desperate attempt to stabilize himself, to hold onto something. He could barely hear himself think over the blood pounding in his ears, mouth dry and eyes unable to focus on the hangar ceiling above him.

Wait...the hangar?

The world moved far too fast as he sat up, and he found his vision swimming, flashing lights dotting the corners of his eyes and making his head throb with agony. His trembling fingers wound into his hair and it took him a moment to realize that the shrieks bouncing off of the metal walls were his own. It was all too much, too sudden, the room was spinning around him and he felt like he would pass out if he opened his eyes. In his daze, he stumbled to his feet, one trembling fist pounding on the nearest wall once he found it. The floor felt as if it were lurching under his feet, and so was his stomach, the sound of bile splattering against the floor only adding to the cacophony of noise in his head.

_stop stop stop stop stop stop **STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPST**_

He wasn't sure how long it took, standing there against the wall, gasping and sobbing, but the crippling dizziness slowly faded and he could open his eyes again. The first thing he saw was his own vomit on the floor. Ew. He averted his gaze quickly, looking around the room. It was the room he'd died in, and everything was still in place, the broken cable, the bloodstain from the bathroom to the press, the press…

The press had been lifted somehow. And the only thing on it besides the blood, at least a few days old now, was Kaito's jacket, laying with the sleeve still hanging down over the edge of the press. Unconsciously, Kokichi found himself picking it up and slipping it over his bare shoulders like a blanket. He paused, then felt his right arm. Sticky, presumably with sweat, but no arrow hole.

He was alive.

... _Why._

Why was he alive. He'd finally accepted death for the sake of ending the killing game, so why...why why why. It wasn't _fair._

...Was everyone else alive too? He found his feet moving on their own, carrying him toward the open hangar door like a zombie. If everyone was alive too...did that mean they'd beaten the killing game? Did they win? But if they were still in the school...then he'd failed. Had Shuichi figured out his plan? Or...had Kaito been too obvious? ...No. In his final moments, he had placed all of his trust in the astronaut to continue his lies even after his death, he wouldn't have given up the act unless Monokuma threatened to kill everyone anyway. Something in Kokichi’s heart just...knew.

He sounded too much like Kaito now.

The steady _drip, drip, drip_ of some sort of liquid with every step followed him down the hallway.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before he could even question who it was, the door to the dining room swung open so hard that the resounding bang as it hit the wall sent the whole group into a shocked silence.

...

Everyone was alive.

Shuichi smiled as he looked around the dining room, watching the others converse among themselves and clean themselves up. It was a bit jarring, how they'd each woken up, still bloody and with remnants of their deaths still clinging to them, whether it was as obvious as the rope around Kaede's neck, or as subtle as the faint smell of salt that seemed to follow Korekiyo everywhere. At least they were alive.

And the killing game was over.

The school was in one piece again, but the barrier to the outside had been destroyed, revealing the thriving world around them, rather than the apocalyptic one they had thought was waiting for them. There was no sign of Monokuma, the Monokubs, or Tsumugi anywhere, thankfully. They were all safe now.

“Hey, Saihara, could you pass me one of those towels?”

Shuichi turned from his conversation with Kaito to hand Rantaro a towel, since the other had just finished washing the blood from his hair, then just studied the room, body relaxing as he saw the group beginning to look more normal. Gonta's clothes were still charred and they hadn't been able to get Ryouma's handcuffs off yet, but for the most part they all looked like they had before.

But...something seemed wrong. Shuichi thought for a moment, then looked around the room, counting its occupants. There was someone missing.

Before he could even question who it was, the door to the dining room swung open so hard that the resounding bang as it hit the wall sent the whole group into a shocked silence.

And Shuichi stared at the small figure, soaked from head to toe in dripping crimson, standing in the doorway.

For a long moment, he couldn't even figure out who it was. That was certainly Kaito's coat draped over their shoulders, and the person themself was shirtless, the scarlet liquid hiding their hair color. But as he noticed the belts hanging from the intruder’s pants, their small size, and the wide, emotionless purple eyes staring out from between locks of bloodsoaked hair, it clicked.

“...K... _Kokichi?”_

In mere moments, a few of the students had rushed to the former supreme leader's side, namely Kirumi, Gonta, and Kiibo. Shuichi could barely hear the questions they were throwing at him, just staring at Kokichi. If the insane amount of blood covering his entire body wasn't jarring enough, the boy's facial expression was the rotten, shriveled cherry on top. It was blank, emotionless, but at the same time swirled with a turmoil Shuichi had never seen from him before. As the killing game had progressed, Kokichi's lies became more and more clear, as did his truths. Looking back on his different actions, his “truths”, his “lies”, Shuichi had started to pick out a pattern between them. Perhaps it was merely his detective skills taking over, he did tend to overanalyze things.

And now? Despite the doubting whispers he heard around him, he could tell clearly. This wasn't a lie.

A choked noise beside him cut through his thoughts.

Shuichi tore his gaze from Kokichi’s eyes to look into Kaito's. To say the astronaut looked like he'd seen a ghost would be a drastic understatement. He looked like he was about to pass out, the sheer terror on his face enough to create a sort of aura around him, bleeding fear onto the people next to him. His hands were shaking and the color had drained from his cheeks, his gaze locked on the hunched figure of Kokichi in the doorway. What about seeing him made Kaito so...horrified?

Shuichi still didn't know exactly what had happened between them. Kaito had explained tidbits and important parts of the whole scene in the hangar, but he'd obviously left out some things. Their last moments together were still a mystery, and would probably remain so forever. But even Shuichi couldn't imagine what could have happened to elicit such a strong reaction from the astronaut.

“Hey-Kokichi!!”

Shuichi whipped back to see Kokichi violently ripping himself from Kirumi's arms and starting across the room, in a mad dash that send flecks of the dripping blood spraying out behind him. His first instinct was to dive out of the way and shield himself from the onslaught, which he almost did before noticing the boy wasn't headed for him.

He was headed for Kaito.

The horror on his face made so much sense now, and Maki was already starting forward to protect Kaito, knife at the ready. Time seemed to slow down for a moment, as Shuichi processed what was happening. He was frozen to the spot as Kokichi charged forward, eyes wild with an unidentifiable emotion and lips pulled back in a grimace that sat poorly on his normally mischievous face. Kaito looked as if he wanted to throw up, chest heaving with what Shuichi prayed wasn't more coughing. And Maki looked determined to end this once and for all, determined to end Kokichi's lies for good. Would she be able to stop him in time? Should Shuichi have done something other than stand there and let another killing happen, when they'd thought the killing game was finally over?

All of the detective's thoughts screeched to a halt as Kaito shoved Maki out of the way and opened his arms, allowing Kokichi to quite nearly tackle him in a hug. Yet again, Shuichi was completely and utterly baffled, so much so that it took him a few seconds to realize that Kokichi was crying.

Even then, it took him another moment to accept that it was truly Kokichi that was crying. The deep, aching sobs that practically bellowed from the small boy's chest sounded so unlike him, yet so sincere that there was no way Shuichi could believe it was an act. The only time he'd ever heard Kokichi cry so genuinely was just before Gonta's execution, and this was an even heavier bout of tears that made his thin frame quake like a leaf and his fingers dig deep into Kaito's back. Kaito didn't seem to care about the blood soaking into his clothes, not even grimacing as he ran his fingers through Kokichi's wet hair, whispering words of comfort. The once supreme leader now looked so frail, like he would fall apart at any moment, and Shuichi was just now beginning to notice how pale he was, how he looked so thin and somewhat malnourished without his straightjacket. He looked...small.

It was then that he was able to see Kokichi for who he _truly_ was. Not a monster, not a mastermind, not malice. He was just a scared kid, just like the rest of them.

Shuichi sighed and moved forward, wrapping his arms around the two and wincing as Kokichi's blood soaked into his own sleeves. He wasn't too surprised when he felt more arms join his own, though he didn't pay much attention to whose they were. 

_“You're alone, Kokichi. And you always will be.”_

His own words stung in the back of his brain, and he hoped this was enough to show Kokichi that wasn't true. Within the embraces of those who cared for him, he hoped he would know that much.

He opened his eyes to see Kokichi's quivering lips pulled up in a soft, happy smile, and he smiled back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it, hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
